Dow Makes Record Highs a Habit After Robust Jobs Report

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- The Dow Jones Industrial Average earlier in the session smashed through 14,400 for the first time, before pulling back by the close to post its fourth-straight record closing session. The Dow and the S&P 500 booked a six-day winning streak on Friday.

Overall, major U.S. stock averages booked a positive session after a robust February employment report showed a decline in the unemployment rate to near pre-recession levels.

The encouraging jobs growth number of 236,000 "affirms or confirms the movement in the stock market," said Darrell Cronk, regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank, which has more than $169 billion in assets under management. "It takes away this argument that the Federal Reserve is doing all the heavy economic lifting. That the economy itself, whether you look at this jobs report or some of the numbers you've seen in initial jobless claims or the ADP report, or the ISM, all of those economic indicators are starting to directionally move for us to" a more positive outlook.

Cronk, who thinks the nonfarm payrolls report for February was a "great" report, noted that the unemployment rate, which fell two tenths of 1%, was the lowest unemployment rate the economy has seen since December 2008, so "it again confirms that we're moving back to almost pre-recession levels which is encouraging," though it's not yet at the Fed's 6.5% unemployment target.

"Understand that one month does not make a trend, but certainly we're heading in the right direction," he said.

The Dow advanced 67.58 points, or 0.47%, at 14,397.07, earlier spiking to an intraday high of 14,413.17. The blue-chip index surged 2.18 on the week.

The S&P 500 rose 6.92 points, or 0.45%, at 1,551.18. The index popped 2.17 for the week. The Nasdaq finished ahead by 12.28 points, or 0.38%, at 3,244.37. The tech-heavy index jumped 2.35% in the past five days.

All sectors in the broader market were trading higher, led by capital goods, consumer cyclicals and services.

Volumes totaled 3.58 billion shares on the New York Stock Exchange and 1.61 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers were edging decliners by a ratio of 2-to-1 on the Nasdaq and Big Board.

Shortly after the report, the 10-year Treasury yield spiked to about 2.07% from about 1.96% Thursday, a relatively big move in the bond market as positive sentiment continued to drive the movement towards equities and away from fixed-income assets or bonds. Cronk said this trend continues to confirm his team's tactically overweight position in large- cap stocks and underweight position in fixed-income.